The Huffington Post: Open Season on Lawyers in Russia

February 19, 2010

Rus­sia has become a pret­ty scary place for lawyers to work, and not for any lack of pow­er lunch­es, major deal­mak­ing, or lux­u­ry retail­ers. While we most often hear about the scores of jour­nal­ists who pay a high price for their crit­i­cism of the Krem­lin, the legal pro­fes­sion has come under attack as well, in both polit­i­cal cas­es as well as run-of-the-mill cor­rup­tion. In recent years, dozens of lawyers have been forced into prison, out of the coun­try, or worse.

The most famous lawyers to fall vic­tim to these prey­ing forces would be Stanislav Markelov, the human rights lawyer who was shot dead on a Moscow side­walk; Vasi­ly Alex­anyan, the Yukos gen­er­al coun­sel who was refused med­ica­tion for AIDS and tuber­cu­lo­sis; and Sergei Mag­nistky, the cor­po­rate lawyer who most recent­ly died in prison fol­low­ing abu­sive treat­ment in rela­tion to the Her­mitage case.

The most recent name to make the head­lines is Jami­son Fire­stone, the 44-year-old Amer­i­can found­ing part­ner of the law firm Fire­stone Dun­can in Moscow, who has been forced to flee Rus­sia for his own safe­ty. Fire­stone was the for­mer employ­er of Mag­nit­sky, and rep­re­sent­ed Her­mitage in their recent tra­vails against state corruption.

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